Synopsis

Marianne Elliott directs the first of this two-part National Theatre production which looks at homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic in America in the mid-1980s. Set in New York during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Louis Ironson (James McArdle) learns that his lover Prior Walter (Andrew Garfield) has been diagnosed with AIDS. Unable to cope with Prior's illness, Louis leaves him to face his fate alone. Meanwhile, Mormon, and closeted homosexual, Joseph Pitt (Russell Tovey) finds it increasingly difficult to accept himself for who he is, and lawyer Roy Cohn (Nathan Lane) uses his political connections to secure himself a secret supply of an experimental drug in the hope of curing his own AIDS.